


That Ordinary Language

by nostalgicmemories (Iolaire02)



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, How Do I Tag, Just kidding!, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Suicide, Poetry, chapter 10 is a lil bit religious, does the fact that most of these are under 100 words make them drabbles?, even though it's poetry, how do i tag about poetry?, okay i'm done now, some of these are better than others, specifically, terrible formatting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26504680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iolaire02/pseuds/nostalgicmemories
Summary: nm's book of poetry.Or: a collection of poems that are original and therefore don't fit the theme of my other pseud.





	1. Fortune's Favorite

**Author's Note:**

> If these seem familiar, it may be because they've ended up in some of the fic I also write. I promise they're mine and I'm not stealing anyone's work.
> 
> The title is bastardized, but was inspired by the quote "Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.” — Paul Engle
> 
> Enjoy the only thing with decent chapter titles you'll ever get from me.

Those who have seen darkness shine in the night

Those who know weakness don’t go down without a fight

Those whose tears sting day after day

Those whose pain will make them pay,

They are the only ones who know:

Fortune favors the bold

Triumph tries men’s souls

Love labors in our bones

Wisdom lurks beneath our eyes

Glory guilds a woman’s smile

Laughter laces through their hearts

We lie in wait for life to start.


	2. Glittering Gold

There is something like magic in memories,

And something like pain in “can’t you sees?”

There is a moment in life that you realize

The world will never bare itself to your naked eyes.

And there will be a day when you finally understand

There is more to the earth than sea and dry land.

And on that day, be courageous and bold,

For even memories do not glitter like gold.


	3. You Yourself

You look in the mirror, and what do you see?

The backwards reflection you’ll never be.

Some day you’ll realize who you are,

And you’ll wonder how you got this far.

But you’re the one in this story

Who cannot see yourself clearly.

So what are you going to do, my dear,

When yours is the shadow that you fear?


	4. Time's Vengeance

You wonder sometimes about who and why,

When your potential has always surpassed the sky.

But then you remember your enemies,

And think this must have been the plan of centuries.

So you wonder again about who and how

When your worst offense was not taking a bow.

Then you ask if it was a crime of intent,

But who would have killed you in your own element?


	5. Silver Tongue

Words deceive the spaces of your mind,

And the truths in lies are hard to find.

The world will not thank you for

Shattering the chains of their myths and lore.

In truth, they will pray for you to stumble,

So don’t heal the earth or make it crumble.

Bite your tongue and hide your fear;

Lies are all we want to hear.


	6. Secretive Trust

To the highest bidder, secrets are sold,

And to curious ears, stories are told.

They say: man and wife can live in lust,

But there will be no love if there is no trust.


	7. Troubled Waters

The memories you have are a patchwork quilt

Full of people drowning in fear and guilt.

The fragments you own are water-marked and torn,

And detail occurrences that should never have been borne.

Your last recollection is a familiar face,

And your pain and betrayal were buried in lace.


	8. Lonely Light

Walk soft, my dear, across the hardwood floor

Step light, tip-toe, there’s a rhythm to every snore.

Dance bold, leap high, befriend the howling wind,

It brings you to the moon, who - like you - has sinned.

Stand alone on the lonely orb, and mind her lack of light

The stars and sun look down for fun and leave without a fight.

Wait you there on this pedestal you’ve claimed for your own,

And tell us when you comprehend that the tides aren’t yours to hone.

In that hour, leave your tower, and set foot in the abyss,

Fear not, O heir, your family is there, and you we sorely miss.


	9. Inky Earth

Shadowed starkly against the wall is a slender-fingered hand;

The colored pallet balanced upon it is anything but bland.

The portrayal that is painted boldly across the screen

Is a rendition of the universe in a study of blue and green.

It demands a thousand tries before the pigments stick,

And all the while throughout the hall dance strains of music.


	10. Mind Blind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took a bit of a religious turn; you all are entitled to your opinions, just as I am entitled to mine. Please keep that in mind if you decide to read this one. If not, that's totally fine. Skip ahead; this is currently the only religious one, and I intend to keep it that way.

The people of the earth are blind

If they don’t believe in some greater mind.

Our history is preserved in stone;

How can we possibly be alone?

Where a lion has a king, and bees a queen,

What makes us so special that we needn’t be seen?

Is it arrogance that makes us believe we’re on our own,

When the whole world has some being seated on a throne?

Listen and remember that though we crown the chain,

There’s still somebody out there with a more impressive name.


	11. Truer Words

I love you

These words are true

Waves break around me

I sink to one knee

You are the earth, the air, the water

You approach the altar as a daughter

We say ‘I do’

And there is truth in these words, too

We are named husband and wife,

You are the light of my life.

Every day, I will remain true

There is little I love more than I love you.


	12. Your Truths

Tell me who you are

When hiding behind doors and bars

Tell me, do you flaunt your name

Or do you bury your head in your hands in shame?

Tell me this: if you could fly

Would you reach towards the sky?

Tell me your secrets, give me a clue

When you’re on your own, who are you?


	13. Nowhere Train

Listen to the whistling wind

It’ll tell you the secrets of the wunderkind.

Focus past the falling snow,

Can you hear the whistle blow?

Somewhere after this rock and that hill,

A train grants refuge from the bitter chill.

The only way to the heavenly plain

Is if you board the nowhere train.

So have faith in here,

Your way is straight and clear.

Breathe deep, and take heart,

The nowhere train will soon depart.


	14. Mirror Man

There is a face in the mirror:

A drab girl, with sad eyes.

There is a man in the mirror;

He tells her pretty lies.

There are shards of the mirror

Strewn across the floor.

There are edges of the mirror,

Which draw blood once more

There are tear stains on the mirror;

They tell a tragic story:

Here lies the wife of a man

Who loves her less than glory. 


	15. History's Mystery

The world’s bloody history

Is one that seeks out mystery. 

And when those unsolved questions attack,

Who can stop themselves from fighting back?

Some warriors fall upon a clever turn of phrase,

While others leap out from behind a sunlit haze. 

Still more curl their tongues into words of deception,

But their friends love the world to pieces without exception. 

The loyal follow their leaders into vicious battles,

While the fearful shoot their arrows from the safety of their castles.

The hateful slip out from shadows to wrap nooses ‘round necks like cords;

The bravest of them all run screaming, banners flying from their swords. 

And after peaceful valleys and mountain paths are blooded,

One side gives in, and peace is signed, before their lands are flooded. 

And, look, here is a mystery that everyone has solved:

It is by the defeated that the victors’ crops are culled.

Sprawled around the towns in dinky pubs and bars

Are men with broken minds and shattered bones and gruesome scars. 

They drink mystery and death and grief and guilt by the flagon,

For they cannot bear to look upon the earth they’ve put a flag in. 

That treacherous, soulless, graveyard ground is stained with bleak dismay,

For the lives that seed its trenches speak of skeleton-deep decay.

It is these men - the forgotten soldiers and the brutalized, bitter slaves - 

Who shout the truth, gazing at graves of those they could not save:

They were enraptured by the parades and the songs and the show,

And they bled, and died, and were buried in the snow.


	16. Warring Peace

Peace is what they like to call

The aftermath of torn down walls.

Peace is what they like to say

When the conversation doesn’t go their way.

Peace is what they like to tell

The wailing prisoners they cannot sell. 

Peace, they say, is the new norm

Even in the eyes of storms. 

Peace is taught to the mongers of war

And would-bes are infused with a peaceful core. 

They cover their eyes with blinding fleece

And deafen their ears to warring peace.


	17. Victory Horn

Men ride, long and tired

O’er hill and through quagmire.

Their heels press to glossy flanks,

And along the way, 

They are sure to pray,

Lifting their hands in thanks.

Hooves clatter into town,

Kicking up heather and down

As they pass by billowing fields of corn.

And, listen, there, do you hear

That brassy sound drawing near?

‘Tis the trumpeter blowing,

Blowing,

Blowing,

‘Tis the trumpeter blowing the victory horn.


	18. Fairy Tale

Make them laugh

Make them cry

Include a wizard’s staff,

And an unknowable lie.

Build bridges over rivers,

Throw stones at glass,

Send through their bodies shivers.

Then, stick a pretty lass

In an impenetrable tower

Where a knight in a cuirass

May be given a flower.

For it is this man,

Wearing moonlit armor

That proves that he can

Kill a dragon with honor

Away they must go, 

The princess and her knight,

For there approaches a great foe

Who follows their flight.

On horseback they ride,

That boy and girl,

And in the night they hide

Gems more precious than pearls.

In the light of day,

They clatter toward

A land they cannot say,

And they cross the rocky fjord.

Hot on their heels

Are the hounds of hell,

Who brandish weapons of steel,

And whisper spells.

And on that great morn,

The princess is crowned;

At the sound of her horn,

The hellhounds are downed.

Now with this in mind,

Add a joke or two,

And maybe a golden hind

That their enemies rue.

Make the knight and princess sing,

Their words ink on a page,

And include a precious ring

Before they’re shut inside their cage.


	19. Street Walker

There is a man who walks the streets,

Though the cobbled stones do not touch his feet.

He haunts the ruins of a corner store,

Though he does not work there anymore.

The people of the city walk right through him,

For there is no solidity to his life or limb.

There are days each year when he might scream,

But this ghost cannot be heard or seen.


	20. Mountain Forest

Mountains and trees both have roots,

And mountains - not trees - have treasure to loot.

It is trees whose branches resemble fine laces,

Even when darkness draws sinister faces.

Mountains have faces etched in dragon soot,

And they’ve got spider-webbing trails for the light of foot.

Trees cover ground in forests thick and thin,

And they’re dark enough to hide the paths of sin.


	21. Decades After

You see a girl across the room and say she’s pulchritudinous;

She looks at you in disbelief, and you admit you’re new to this.

She extends her hand with a tintinnabulating laugh,

And looks you in the eye and says she’ll have to pass.

You shake off her rejection with a self-deprecating smile;

Ten years later there’s a photo: you, her, and your child.


	22. Deathless Dying

Some people die with age in their bones,

While others have their lives stolen by stones.

Then, there are those who write themselves onto pages,

And others whose stories are lost to the ages.

There are corpses whose souls have long been forgotten;

Many more are found in the graves they were tossed in.

Some men lose their lives to the cruelties of war,

Others burn in their boats that sail the peaceful fords.

There are people who die due to careless words;

Theirs are not the only carcasses picked at by birds.


	23. Ivory Keys

Fingers trip down the ivory keys

They coax out a black and white melody.

Press them up and down in a quivering trill,

Change dynamics and speed in a show of skill.

Play aggressive and loud, or soft and light:

This music has the power to stop a fight.

Heed the audience’s desperate plea,

And with those notes play a harmony.


	24. Freed Man

Freedom is just a pretty word

When you know that your cries will not be heard.

It is not that your pleas are lacking sound,

It is that your captors’ hearts cannot be found.

The slave-drivers believe they are better than you,

So they assign you tasks they cannot do.

You find yourself trapped in a game of chess

Where winning is all that allows you to rest.

It is ebony and ivory facing off,

And there are so many traitors that you want to scoff.

In the end, you have your rights,

But in the background there is still a fight:

There are some who believe the injustices that are rife

Within the world are just a fact of life.

So you fight until your dying day

To show the world there’s another way.


	25. Painted Faces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This poem is inspired by Prince of Foxes, which is a spectacular book that everyone should read. Some of the lines are directly from the book.

There is a portrait of a man whose face is rendered in paint;

This man once was lauded as a soldier and a saint.

One day he set out to become the soul of a city,

And in so doing wrought a plot whose details he was not privy.

He met a man who leapt at him as a goblin from a cradle,

And before that man he met a girl whose beauty is told in fables.

In the world, he destroyed the little before building up the great,

And all the while he told himself that this was his chosen fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "soldier and a saint," "soul of a city," "goblin from a cradle," and "destroy the little before building up the great" are all directly from the book, though I don't remember if the wording is exactly the same. Regardless, those descriptions are not mine, so credit where credit is due.


	26. Whispered Word

Secrets are more than whispered words

They dwell in our souls like chattering birds.

From ear to ear, they lay a trap:

A delicate thing that is ready to snap

At a moment’s notice, and then it will fling

All those secrets we dare not sing,

And into the world they will go,

Falling from the sky like ash or snow

Because secrets are more than whispered words:

They destroy and freeze and leave the world to burn.

So we hide ourselves and mask our faces;

What’s real is left behind without any trace.


	27. Death Was

Death was the reason for the tears he cried.

The truth and the pain

Remained the same

No matter how much he lied.

Death was what stifled his calls for help.

It bound him and buried him,

And from his body it rent his limbs,

Until the loss was all he felt.

Death was the word that hollowed out his soul.

It drowned his world in shadows,

And in the darkness bones rattled.

He stood alone feeling as though he would never be whole.

Death was the sound his lips refused to form,

For it killed and burned his life;

It drove him to the bottle and the knife,

And it left him on his own, facing a heartless storm.

Death was the thing that left him blind;

It hid the sun from his eyes,

Grounded his heart so it could not fly,

And in the end he was left trapped in his own mind.

Death was why he lied and cried,

But above all, death was the reason he died.


	28. Winter Sky

Some days, the sky cannot help but cry:

Its bitter tears are frozen and accompanied by a sigh. 

Sorrow blankets the trees and ground where angels lay;

Winter is the season when even the sun won’t come to play.


	29. In Summary

Salt and gold and slaves are things that move from hand to hand

They and marriage and war are nothing more than bids for land.

History is an amalgam of monarchies and blood,

Before which there were sky-piercing towers and torrential floods. 

Later on were times of peace followed by revolutions;

Overthrow the crown and advance were some solutions. 

Often, there were schisms brought on by religion,

But those were soothed by red lining the door of the kitchen. 

Some looked down on those with stars, or anybody ‘other,’

Their slaves built tombs and tilled the earth that’s everybody’s mother. 

Conquerors set their foreign feet on mud that was new to them,

And to the natives they introduced the precursor pox to the hen.

Centuries passed before a queen was turned upon by her daughter;

They fought and their bond was in pieces a blacksmith couldn’t solder. 

Years later, the child tore herself in two,

And even after proof of red, some thought their blood was blue. 

A facsimile of the original rights was accompanied by a roar,

But even so, the line of men was followed by one more. 

Three less than eight score years have passed since Gettysburg,

Yet there remain inequalities whose existences are ensured.


	30. Au/Ag

Life leaves its victims in a state of ambivalence:

They alternately rage about a lack of omnipotence,

And the sense of deja vu that leaves them floundering

As they repeat their walk past the slavish masses. 

Life gives its subjects an impossible challenge:

Live in peace and joy and love without impressive poundage. 

And here’s the rub: the very rich consume their silver and gold,

Yet they blind their eyes and harden their hearts to the hollows in their souls. 

Meanwhile, the very poor don’t have two pennies to rub together,

And their sickly hope and peace and joy don’t feed them any better. 

So death greets its family with widespread arms:

It judges them on guilt, not gilt,

And gives the worthy farms.


End file.
